Our Hearts
by rikkilucario7
Summary: 19-year-old doctor Will Riverside has a deadly disease and a stunning secret: he is one of the three pokemorphs with a heart condition in which the muscle abruptly and randomly stops, and the only way back is through shock after shock from an AED. When he and friends are kidnapped, they meet the fourth case and must find a way to cure her and escape before her father ends them all.
1. Mood and Tone

CHAPTER ONE

IN THE CORNER of a medium-sized office was a sleek black desk. A computer sat on it along with several notebooks, pens, pencils, and a cell phone, all lying there in a fashion so organized they seemed to be molded into the desk. The floor and three walls were a calm baby blue, and the fourth was a huge window. Through it one could see that the sky was gray and dark, beautiful in a different way than normal, and so, along with the lights turned off, the computer was the only thing that shed light into the room.

In a feminine voice, the machinery read:

Ninety one percent.

Ninety two percent.

A boy stood behind the window, watched the rain pour gently down, and listened to the thunder roll, feeling trapped in his office. He rolled his shoulders uncomfortably, wishing the computer would either hurry up or never finish. He already knew that the loading graphs and charts wouldn't give him and the hospital ward team much more information, but he hoped it would at least confirm something new. Anything new.

He rolled his shoulders again as the computer continued counting.

Ninety three percent.

Ninety four percent.

Ninety five percent.

Trying to momentarily distract himself, he started looking into the window at himself. He had bright, messy orange hair (that he proceeded to run his nervous fingers through) and ocean-blue eyes. He wasn't very tall, only about five feet and maybe five inches, nor was he broad. For a nineteen-year-old, he looked very small and very young. His white lab coat just added to the effect, making him look as if he were only playing doctor.

Unfortunately, this was not a game. The boy, known in this life as Will Riverside, had been a doctor there at the medical wing of PIPA for two years now, since the day after he graduated medical school and the day before he turned seventeen. This kid was a genius, and it had been obvious since he turned eight. That day he changed back into himself.

Ninety six percent.

Ninety seven percent.

Ninety eight percent.

Ninety nine percent.

Upon hearing the number, Will clenched his teeth and tightened his muscles, his eyes fixed somewhere past the window, his ears locked on the feminine voice of the computer, and his mind clutching something between hope and fear.

One hundred percent.

Will stood there, frozen, the voice echoing in his ears and sinking into his mind slowly, slowly.

The phone on his desk rang, knocking Will from his thoughts. He shook his head and walked over to the desk, then glanced at the caller ID and picked up the phone.

"Anything?" came his friend's voice, an unusual sliver of desperation lying hidden.

Will stayed quiet for a moment, surveying the graphs and charts of information. He sighed loudly. "We reconfirmed that it is not caused by a bacterium, fungus, or virus. And we need to look at the karyotype again."

An angered and annoyed sigh could be heard through the phone, along with a voice: "So nothing. It was all for nothing."

"No," Will argued, "We reconfirmed-"

"For the _fifth _time, Will! The fifth!" Another sigh came through, this one sadder. "We put you through all that agony for nothing."

Will flinched, and his chest, neck, and arms hurt again as he remembered the incident.


	2. Heart and Blood

CHAPTER TWO

"WILL, WE WANT to give you another heart biopsy," Jaeson told me, a clipboard in his hands. His orderly black hair, piercing purple eyes, and height of six feet tended to intimidate people, but I had known Jaeson for a long, long time, and he didn't scare me anymore, not at all. Even with what his true DNA proved he was.

Jaeson Oracle was a pretty impressive man. He had graduated medical school seven years ago, when he was nineteen, but it would have been earlier had he not previously been taking classes in detective work. He was even smarter than I was, and that was definitely saying something huge.

Doctor Jaeson Oracle now ran PIPA's Chicago base, though he was more focused on the medical center. His assistant and sister, Destiny Oracle, helped mostly with the actual base itself and its ins and outs.

Now he had his crisp white lab coat on and what I believed to be a consent form on the clipboard in his hands. Noting it, I nodded and asked him, "Why another biopsy now?"

Jaeson responded, "The first time we did it you last had an attack four months previously. You had another three days ago. Possibly there is some change in your heart, so I'd like to compare."

I nodded and held a hand out. Jaeson handed me a pen and the clipboard and I signed and then wondered, "When?"

Glancing at his watch, he told me, "Three hours and twenty-five minutes from now."

"You could just say five-thirty," I told my friend. Jaeson shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "All right," I sighed at him, "I'll be there."

Jaeson nodded curtly and took his things back. "Good." Just then his pager started ringing, and he nodded at me again before leaving. I was about to go back to my office when my own pager started ringing. It's little screen read, "Exam room eight. Now."

I sucked in a breath and started running for the room, hoping whoever it was wasn't dying yet.

The familiar white-green room greeted me along with the beeping of several machines. The chorus of noises sounded right to me, and glancing at the red letters and lines confirmed that the patient's heart and breathing were normal. Not dying yet. Thank goodness.

I turned away from the machines and looked at the person I'd be treating.

It was only Blueaura. "Hello," my friend Lighting said from a chair beside him, smiling her usual smirky smile.

Lighting's real name was Elsie Strike. She was thirty-two years old and had gone to the PIPA college for detective work when she was fourteen, which was normally four to six years premature, but her case was... a special one. A very, very special one.

In the bed next to her was Aaron Blueaura, though we just called him by his last name. He was just like Lighting: a special case and a fourteen-year-old drop-in. The two of them met here and started dating when they were fifteen years old, and they were still. No time for a wedding when you're an agent, I guess.

"What's wrong with Blueaura?" I asked, feeling my muscles tense.

She shrugged. "His heart rate went down three beats. I got worried."

I glanced at the heart rate monitor again. It was normal. "He's fine now." I looked back to her, and saw how her usually-hard face had cracked just enough to show me the worry that had entered her expression. This was a very, very rare thing I was witnessing.

I walked over to Lightning and gave her a hug, whispering gently, "He doesn't have what I do, Lightning. I promise. We're thinking it's genetic." I pulled away and smiled softly at her.

She nodded, looking at her feet against the tiled flooring. "Okay."

"Dang..." Blueaura moaned softly.

Lightning snapped back to her usual self, though I could still see the worry hiding in her eyes. "Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty," she murmured with a smirk.

"I should hit you," Blueaura muttered, and shifted to sit up. He flinched as he did.

"What happened?" I wondered.

Blueaura shrugged. "Bullet shrapnel embedded into my shoulder. Bloody forehead. Nothing too terrible. I'll be back doing missions soon enough."

I nodded in agreement, noticing the bandage peaking out of his right shirt sleeve. "Does it still hurt?"

He shook his head. "Nah. I'm just tired. That mission was twelve hours without sleep."

"I hate those," Lightning muttered. She sat down and leaned back to throw her head over the top of her chair and said, "Surveillance missions suck, even when there's action."

"Hah, I get to stay here in the safe little hospital," I bragged, grinning at the two as I was fully aware how boring they thought my job was.

"But you're freaking _stuck_ in this bloody white hospital all day and you have. No. Action," Lightning exclaimed, her head still hanging over the chair back.

Staring at the floor, Blueaura quietly added, "And you fight enemies within an ally."

I nodded at Blueaura, silently agreeing with him. "Lightning, there's plenty of action here." Just then my pager rang, and I looked up to grin at her. "Like now. Bye guys."

"Go save some lives, Will!" Lightning called as I raced out of there.

A FEW HOURS later, I lied on an exam table and watched as Jaeson prepared the heart biopsy. What he would soon be doing is cutting a vein in my neck and threading a tube down into my heart to take a tiny piece of tissue. I'd be given a painkiller, but I'd remain awake.

"Okay, I'm going to start. You ready?" Jaeson asked.

I nodded and looked away from the screens around me. I didn't want to see the thing inside me, and I didn't want to see my heart and its scarring from the other biopsies and tests I'd put myself through to try and solve my medical mystery. Though really I wasn't doing it just for me- I was doing it because I was certain there'd be more cases. So far I was the only documented one, but others couldn't be far behind.

I hoped I was wrong, that no one else would get this disease. Hoped with all my being that no one would have to go through what I have been through.

I was hyper aware of Jaeson giving me the localized painkiller, and I felt and heard (from the monitors) my heart beat just a bit faster when I felt the tiny pressure of the tube being threaded down my blood vessel and into my heart. Jaeson very calmly guided me through it, told me when he entered which vessel. He knew I didn't like to watch.

It all went smoothly... until it was just outside my heart.

The beeps started unhurriedly dropping, and I started feeling dizzy- the first sign. Quickly I felt the pulse on my left hand and confirmed its slowing.

"Jaeson," I gasped, "My heart."

Jaeson's muscles tightened immediately. He grabbed my arm from me and felt my pulse himself, then swore loudly and yelled for assistance.

"Do the biopsy," I choked out to Jaeson, knowing this was our chance. If my heart changed during the attacks, this would be the best way to find out. "And take blood."

"Okay," Jaeson responded, sounding tense. "How much time do we have before you're critical?"

I felt my pulse in my wrist again. "About two minutes."

"Shit," Jaeson muttered in reference to the time, then more loudly: "Damn!"

"What?" I asked, knowing something was wrong. Dread squeezed my insides.

"It's stuck on a blood vessel!" he exclaimed angrily.

"Use that, then," I decided, my voice growing cracklier, as I pointed to a long, hollow needle usually used for lumbar punctures.

"I'd be stabbing you," Jaeson argued, but he knew I was right. We needed the piece of heart tissue immediately.

"I know," I said calmly, then closed my eyes and told him: "One minute."

Jaeson gritted his teeth, but picked up the device.

Just then a team of nurses flooded in, though Jaeson held them off. He stabbed the needle down through my muscles and into my heart as I screamed so loud my voice faded out.

"Get some blood. Now!" Jaeson yelled at one of the nurses, who did it immediately. He turned to another one and instructed, "And you, too. You for a karyotype."

"Thirty seconds," I gasped.

"You!" Jaeson demanded from the last nurse, "Get the AED charged up."

Jaeson took the needle out of me and within seconds the blood tests were also done.

"Five seconds," I whispered, seeing black spots start on my vision.

"Put it at level six!" Jaeson demanded, and took the defibrillator from the nurse. He shocked me, and I screamed again as the electricity bounced through my body. Jaeson counted down and I kept screaming until he reached level one. My heart rate was still not normal, so he stated once again at level six.

The second time he reached level two I fainted, whispering what I thought were to be my last words: "Goodbye everybody."

The last thing I heard was Jaeson yelling, "Don't say goodbye! I won't let you die!"


	3. Genes and Diseases

CHAPTER THREE

I woke up again, exhausted as I normally was after the attacks, at around , I forced myself to sit up and then looked around the hospital room. I saw Jaeson staring out the window, and so I choked "Hi" out of my dry mouth.

He turned around and smiled, just a little, though even that much was a lot for him. "Good morning, kid. Welcome back to the world of the living." He walked over to me and handed over a glass of water, which I happily drank.

I smiled weakly back at him, saying, "Thanks. How many times in total did you shock me?"

Jaeson shifted his calculated gaze to stare at his feet. "Twenty-one. Plus I had to-" he stopped to look around, at the door, the window, etc., to make sure no one heard him- "use psychic to keep your heart beating for a while. You would've died without that."

I nodded, flinching inside. This disease... was hard. For me to live through, for Jaeson to watch me live through. "Thank you. And Jaeson..."

"What?" he asked, tensing slightly with worry and looking back at me.

I gritted my teeth before answering, "Maybe it's time you tell them what you really are. That you're a mewtwo."

He stared at me with his piercing purple eyes for a long time, and I wondered what he was thinking. Finally he asked, "What about you, Buizel Boy?"

I shook my head. "Not time yet. The other doctors don't respect me enough to accept it. They would accept you being a pokemorph, though. You've saved so, so many lives and each of these doctors and nurses and all the agents respect you. Many even look up to you. I don't have that yet, and until I do I think it's a bad idea, especially because there are a lot of people who don't like pokemorphs in the workforce."

Jaeson shook his head sadly. "I know all too well. There's even some here, for goodness' sakes. PIPA- Pokemon Interactions Protection Agency. Our whole job is to protect people and pokemon alike. Why they would be against morphs yet still work here, I wonder."

"Maybe it isn't pokemon nor humans they've a problem with. Maybe it's just when they are combined," I suggested. My voice sounded weak and disdained. One man- Caleb Jackson- was on our minds for certain. He knew Lightning and Blueaura were morphs, and never would he let them forget it.

"Maybe," Jaeson said slowly, nodding. "Hm." He shifted his purple piercing gaze back to whatever lied outside the window

LIGHTNING AND BLUEAURA were called to Doctor Kane Johnson at around seven that morning. Blueaura was actually the one called, but Lightning tagged along. She sensed trouble here. She and Jaeson agreed with almost everything, but this was one thing she could not. She didn't trust Johnson like he did.

"Hello, Blueaura," Johnson grinned. "Welcome back. First time here since you quit my special research, right?"

Blueaura nodded, eying the man carefully. He knew Lightning's judgement of the man as well as Jaeson's, but went with his girlfriend's just to be safe.

Johnson frowned as Lightning came into view. "I invited Blueaura, not you."

She smirked and crossed her arms. "Well, Blueaura invited me."

There was a small staredown before Johnson turned and walked into his office, beckoning the two behind him. They met a glance before cautiously following.

Johnson walked them to a door. He knocked on it and said, "Lucifer. Come out so I can show them the results of my research."

"Hang on," came the voice of a teenager, one that Lightning noticed was eerily familiar to Blueaura's when he was a kid. A moment later the door opened and a boy came out.

"What the hell?" Lightning demanded, shocked. This boy looked _exactly_ like Blueaura, just when he was younger. The same dark blue hair, shocking ocean eyes, thin frame...

Blueaura, immensely shocked, looked from Johnson (who was grinning with joy) to Lightning (who was horrified) to the kid (who looked confused). "Is he my clone?"

"No. When he was fifteen, before he hit puberty, DNA was grafted into him. I-" Johnson began to explain.

"Does Jaeson know?" Lightning demanded, looking at the poor kid. She guessed he must have been through a lot... a lot a lot.

Johnson shook his head. "Jaeson-"

"Jaeson what?" Jaeson demanded, stalking into the room with Will on his heels.

Johnson went white.

Jaeson and Will both looked from Blueaura to the boy a few times.

"Oh, f***," Jaeson swore, obviously figuring something out right away. He looked at Johnson, his piercing, cold purple gaze intimidating. "That document you've been reviewing and revising. I was wondering how you got the information. You actually grafted DNA into this poor kid?"

Johnson shrunk under his boss's gaze. "I did."

"Whose DNA did you graft into him?" Jaeson demanded, then closed his eyes. "Please, please tell me it was only Blueaura's. Please."

"It was his, Lightning's, and Will's," Johnson said, then suddenly regained himself and stood tall. He explained very clearly which chromosomes he used and why. Apparently this kid could heal, use gained electricity (basically the ability lightningrod) and use Blueaura's enhanced auric abilities. "Isn't that amazing?"

Will looked horrified and Jaeson had tensed and snapped his eyes shut, thinking.

"What..." Lightning whispered, anger and fear mixing in her voice, as she began feeling the powerful emotions clutch at her heart, "What does that mean?"

Will swallowed. "It means he may get several serious complications from our DNA. Lightning, there is heart failure running in your genes, an increased cancer risk in Blueaura's, and... and..." He couldn't say it.

"And we are fairly certain Will's heart condition is in the chromosome Johnson grafted into the kid," Jaeson finished slowly. He opened his eyes, piercing stare now an angry glare. "He could get Will's heart condition, Johnson. Do you know what that means!?" he yelled. "Do you, Johnson? Will's last heart attack nearly killed him. We had to shock him with the defibrillator _twenty-one times_. Do you hear me? TWENTY-ONE TIMES. And now this kid's got an increased cancer and heart failure risk. You've basically _killed_ this kid!" Jaeson's eyes burned with anger.

"Jaeson," Will said gently. Jaeson glanced at him but didn't answer. He turned his gaze to the kid, who looked terrified, and his gaze softened. "Kid, you are not going to die any time soon. I'll see to it." Jaeson shook his head suddenly, and his normal calm seriousness returned. "Johnson, I'd fire you if you didn't have tenure. I'd have to explain to the board exactly what you've done and then you'd probably get arrested, but, unfortunately, you know the most about this kid. You're being demoted to a clerk instead."

"You can't do that!" Johnson yelled, his eyes burning with outrage and his fists clenched at his side.

Jaeson's glare turned ice cold and his body stilled with the chill. "Oh, yes, I can. Did you have his parents' consent to do these tests?"

Johnson gave no answer.

"I thought not. Then you'll take the clerk job or you will be sued on the kid's right as well as get arrested as mentioned earlier," Jaeson responded, crossing his arms. His gaze softened again as he turned to the kid. "What's your name?"

"Lucifer," he answered shyly, obviously afraid of Jaeson.

"You named him Lucifer?" Lightning demanded, outraged. "You do know what that means in Christian religion, right?"

"I didn't name him," Johnson muttered.

"My mother did," Lucifer whispered, his soft voice abruptly quieting everyone. "On purpose. She would've signed everything anyway; she never cared about me."

Jaeson closed his eyes. "Whatever the story may be, you are here now and those papers were never signed. Do you wish to go back to her?"

Lucifer's eyes widened, and he shook once. "No. Please don't make me."

"You won't have to, kid," Jaeson said kindly. He turned to Lightning and Blueaura and asked, "Can you guys take him home with you until I find a better solution for him? He is not staying here with the monster who cursed him." Johnson flinched.

"Yes," Lightning answered right away. She felt for this kid. She'd grown up here, living in the cold white hospital room, and (not that she'd ever, ever tell anyone) every day she wished she could go home with someone like a mom or a dad. She didn't want this kid to have to feel the way she did: lonely, unwanted. Blueaura glanced at her as if to ask if she was ready. She determinedly met his gaze and then nodded.

"Can I go to school?" Lucifer asked randomly, looking hopeful. "I... I liked it when I was little. Before I came here. Mr. Johnson has been teaching me, but... but I'd like to go to a real school if I could."

Jaeson actually smiled a bit at him and answered, "Of course, kid. After what he probably did to you, anything you like we can probably get you." Jaeson sighed. "Especially because if we are right you can have a heart attack at any minute. I'm going to send you to a school where there are quite a few morphs and the nurse is someone I trust, okay?"

Lucifer nodded, then stared at the floor for a few moments, focusing his eyes on the carpeting. Finally he looked up at Jaeson. "Thanks. Am I..." he looked sheepish, "This is a stupid question, but tell me the truth. Am I going to die from this stuff?"

Jaeson paused for a moment, meeting the kid's small, innocent blue eyes with his intense purple gaze. The air stilled around them while he thought, and the kid wondered and feared for the answer until Jaeson responded, "Not if I have anything to do about it, kid."


	4. Missions and Cases

CHAPTER FOUR

Lucifer, Lightning, and Blueaura arrived at their home around six that night, in time for dinner. Their house was not the largest- a three-bedroom-two-bath with a living room and a kitchen, all one floor- but Lightning and her boyfriend loved it nonetheless.

Lucifer at first felt quite uncomfortable in the space, though he adjusted fast and found he liked it there, which was probably because the aura of the place was so happy and warm. Blueaura and Lightning, both having auric abilities as well as Lucifer, made sure of that.

His room's carpeting and walls were colored a mellow baby blue; there was a window, closet, bed, desk, computer- it could easily be a teenager's bedroom. Lucifer could picture himself there, but he couldn't yet picture Blueaura and Lightning as his parents. He'd heard a lot about them- knew they were around thirty years old (a little less than double his age of seventeen), they'd been fighting since they were very young, were born pokemon, had no family but each other- but they didn't know much about him. He wondered if they would try and learn.

Around six thirty that evening Lightning knocked on his door. "Hello?"

"You can come in," Lucifer told her.

She opened the door and walked over to sit on his bed a foot from him. Her stark yellow eyes studied him a moment before saying, "I may not be Christian, but I'm still not calling you Lucifer."

"What are you, then?" Lucifer wondered, his voice curious. He didn't want to talk about his name... or himself at that moment, either. He didn't quite know it, but he was a tad bit afraid of "Jewish? Muslim? Some pokemon religion?"

Lightning laughed, but Lucifer could tell she didn't think it was funny. He hadn't meant it to be, either. "After all that I've seen, kid, I'm an atheist. Blueaura's religious, though I've never asked what his entailed. It's a pokemon one. Neither of us would know it."

Lucifer shrugged. "Probably not." He turned then to face the window and pondered, knowing the name question would come up again and probably that of his own religion. He studied the glass window intensely for a moment before he said quietly, "I don't know what I am yet... But... but call me Luce."

"Like l-u-c-e?" she asked.

"Yeah," he told her, turning to face her with a small smile. "Why not."

Lightning shrugged, and then grinned. "All right. Blueaura's probably done cleaning up now, so let's go eat."

"So you came here just to avoid cleaning?" Luce asked her, raising an eyebrow.

Lightning laughed again. "I came here so neither of us would have to clean. And because I didn't want to call you Lucifer anymore. Mostly for the second reason, though."

Luce grinned and felt his shyness start to melt away a little. "I like you."

Lightning grinned back. "I like you too, kid."

"I NEED TO figure out a way so that you can't cheat cleaning up," Blueaura said, looking directly at Lightning, who just grinned back at him.

"Maybe we should clean up _after_ we eat, like normal people," she suggested slyly.

"You and I both know you won't eat anything hot," Blueaura reminded her, raising his eyebrows. "It'd be wasting time sitting and watching it."

"That's not true," Lightning argued, putting an elbow on the table meaningfully.

Blueaura scoffed. "Get your elbow off the table. And if it isn't true, why have you not touched your pasta yet?"

Lightning fluttered her eyes innocently and said in a very sweet voice, "But it'll burn me."

Blueaura picked up a noodle, placed it in the palm of his hand (where it would burn the most), and showed her it.

Lightning shrugged. "Touche." She preceded to "discretely" lean over to Luce and whisper, "We all know who really wins here."

Luce pressed the back of his hand to his mouth to keep from laughing.

JAESON

TWO WEEKS LATER I had enrolled Lucifer, now called Luce, in school, Johnson was a very grumpy clerk, Will had not had another heart attack, Blueaura was back in action, Destiny and I had elected Lightning as vice president of being vice president of PIPA's mission center, and I was about to go on a surveillance mission.

It was eleven forty, almost noon. I had eaten already and was walking towards the helicopter pad when Rishley called for me.

Rishley worked in the pharmacy. She was a year younger than me at twenty-six years old and had long blonde hair that reached her mid-back and sweet brown eyes. She wasn't a morph- was human- but that didn't bother her nor anyone else.

"Jaeson!" I heard her yell.

I sighed mentally. Rishley didn't quite appreciate when I went on missions without telling her. Turning around, I began with: "Honey, surveillance missions-"

She cut me off. "I know. Not that dangerous. Twelve hours." She smiled and raised her eyebrows at me. "Am I allowed to say goodbye?"

I smiled a little at her and she brightened. She came and gave me a hug, and I whispered, "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

She laid her head on my chest and whispered back, "Okay. Remember you can come to my house if you want; you have a key. I love you."

"It'll be past one in the morning," I reminded her softly. "But okay."

She smiled back up at me, but it didn't reach her eyes.

I smiled my small smile and walked into the helicopter with the other agents.

I mentally sighed. That was the fourth time she'd told me she loved me and the fourth time I'd avoided telling it to her back. I loved her, don't get me wrong; I truly did. But did I? The words... they felt so right to say. They lived at the tip of my tongue whenever I was around her, and repeated in my head whenever I wasn't. I just wasn't ready to make it... official, I guess.

I wanted to know she truly loved me for who I was... and _what_ I was, too.

The helicopter took off. It was pretty small in there, and pretty dark, but neither of those things had really bothered me until that mission. I ignored the feeling and looked at my friends.

"Jaeson, you haven't been on surveillance for what, like a month now?" one of the other agents, a man who went by the name of Race, asked me casually. He was sitting across from me in that weird way with one ankle crossed onto the knee of the other leg.

I nodded distantly, still pondering my dilemma with Rishley and the condition of the helicopter. "Yeah."

"Been too busy solving medical mysteries, huh?" he asked, grinning.

I smirked, my eyes happy and my brain relieved for the distraction. "Been too busy stabbing Riverside with biopsy needles."

Race's eyes went wide and he put his leg down in surprise. "Whaaat? That kid seems too fragile to me."

I shook my head. "No. That kid's more of a trooper than most of you, and his fighting skills are incredible."

"Why ain't he out here, then?" another man, Casper, asked. He was sitting in front of me and had to peer over the edge of the seat to talk with me.

I shrugged. "He's a lover, not a fighter. He's amazing at it, but he hates it."

"I thought _you_ hated fighting," the third and final agent, a girl named Kate, reminded me, raising her eyebrow. She was sitting in front of Race, but was taller than Casper, so she didn't have to struggle to see us; she just turned her head.

"I do," I said, shrugging again. "I hate war fighting, though. This kind of fighting, where thousands of lives are not killed everyday, I am okay with. Gawd knows I love the adrenaline," I finished, grinning.

The others laughed.

THE PLACE WE were at was as bright as a lamp in a box when we got there, so we could see the terrain pretty easily; we were basically up on a high plateau and looking down into a dense forest. Some of it climbed up onto the plateau and sat behind us. Settling into long grass with some binoculars, we got into the mission.

The first eleven hours and forty minutes went smoothly. No one spoke, there was no movement, I was able to distract myself from everything with the mission, and most importantly there were no attacks.

The last twenty minutes, however, sucked.

It all began with a bullet whistling inches away from Race's face.

We all jumped into action and metaphorically pricked our ears and stood still as the acrtic for an intense few moments, but of us found anything, so I cheated and used my auric abilities to find the enemies to be sitting just a few meters away from where we were hiding behind in the grass.

I made a daring move and climbed up into a tree, a gun in my hand. I knew what I'd find already, but this way we could go for surprise, and no one would question me.

Yeah, well, they apparently had some aura abilities themselves.

The moment I got into the one's range he started shooting like no one's business. Immediately I jumped down from the tree and yelled at the other agents to pull their guns and fire back, but the opposing force, ten strong, rushed the meager four of us in response to those guns being pulled.

I commanded everyone loudly and with purpose: they knew I was the leader and half of them went for me right away while the other half attacked the rest of my team. I fought the five with a bit more than ease, my skills sharpened by thousands of years of training. Still I suffered a few hits, and one got me with a knife a couple of times, but otherwise I was fine.

My team, on the other hand, each had less than forty years of training, and the opposing force was not exactly weak.

I fought off my guys the quickest I could, knowing full well none of us had much time.

I was right.

"Ow!" Race yelped abruptly, and my eyes went wide as he felt to the ground.

A bullet? No guns had been shot except that one, and I had assumed he'd run out of ammo. Wrong. Assumptions were usually wrong out here.

That is, of course, when I took a deep breath and screwed it. I felt my eyes turn bright white and the people fighting me froze purple in a psychic attack. I lifted my arms and then threw them down, defeating each of the people in front of me.

Next I threw a hand in the direction of the others and their enemies froze, but I was too weak to throw them up and down. Instead I said, my voice quiet but powerful, "Beat them. Hurry. I can only hold them for so long."

Kate and Casper shot and hit the frozen people until I grew so dizzy I could barely stand, and I released my grip. They all fell back and didn't stand again.

"Jaeson! Are you all right?" Kate demanded, watching me shake with the combination of exhaustion and adrenaline.

"I'm... fine," I mumbled, then slowly and calmly walked over to Race. He had a shoulder wound, thankfully. Shoulders were an okay place to get shot. Worse would be chest. Much, much worse would be chest. "Kate," I began, and I could hear the exhaustion settling in my voice. Damn exhaustion. I had to stay strong; these guys counted on me. "Apply pressure to his wound. Casper, call the helicopter in."

"Shouldn't we apply pressure to your wounds, too?" Kate asked, beginning to pull bandages out of her pack.

I looked down to see a couple crimson blossoms of blood sprouting on my chest and one on my right leg, then felt my forehead and came up with sticky red all over my hand. And, on top of that, my pager started to ring loudly. Pager? Hadn't I left it? Then my cell phone started buzzing. Cell phone? Everyone knew I was on a mission. It was for emergencies onl-

"Hello? Will?" I demanded, feeling yet more adrenaline start pumping through my blood and wake me up once more. "What's happened?"

Grimly, very grimly, Will said, "We now have three cases."

"Just what I need right now," I mumbled.

There was a pause. "I was just told that you guys needed a helicopter," Will said calmly. "I'll be there soon with a medical team and a few more agents."

THANKFULLY WILL'S TEAM arrived about five minutes later, before Race or I could lose that much more blood.

Two of the men I'd held frozen stood up, but Kate and Casper watched, amazed, as Will pressure-pointed them and took them both down in a matter of moments. He then proceeded to take control of the situation (Considering I was still shaking and had my eyes half closed, everyone figured I wasn't quite in leader-shape right now.) and had Race hooked up to an IV and moved into the helicopter. Then he turned to me and signaled for a cot.

"I'm fine," I insisted... just as another drop of blood from my forehead leaked down my cheek and plopped onto the ground.

"No" was all Will (very firmly) said. I felt the cot at the back of my knees and then he (easily, I might add) pushed me down onto it and had a couple nurses pull me up onto the pillow. I closed my eyes and felt a pinch as Will put an IV in me and then suddenly we were flying and Will was peeling my hand off my aching head and bandaging my forehead and cutting my shirt and half of my right pant leg off and I felt nurses, so many nurses, touching me all at once and their auras were smacking my exhausted face and where they touched they hurt.

I groaned loudly and muttered, "Stop. Now."

"Jeezes, you're still awake? Everybody back," Will demanded. I felt his gentle fingers take my pulse and breathing rate. "What's wrong?"

"Aura's overwhelmed," I murmured, then opened my eyes. I looked at my hands but couldn't tell if they were moving or not. "Am I still shaking?"

"Yeah, you are," Will said calmly. He looked up at everyone and directed people to go different places. In the end I watched as he and one nurse, only two hands rather than eight, cleaned me up. People were a bit confused, but no one said anything.

We got to the hospital moments after they had finished. I immediately forced myself up and made sure Race was rushed into surgery and that I was rushed a coffee, a shirt, and pants.

"You should lie down," Will insisted, following me out of the helicopter and then as I walked to the viewing room for the surgery once I'd gotten the above items.

"I'm fine," I told Will surely.

"You have a concussion and several deep chest wounds," Will retorted, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrows as he followed me. "You're not exactly fine."

"I'm fine enough," I said gruffly, speeding up a bit.

Will grabbed my wrist. I turned around and said, "Will-"

"Go. Home," Will demanded, putting his hands on my shoulders. "Please."

I ignored him as I abruptly remembered something. "What's this about a third case, Will?"

"I won't tell you until you freaking go home and bloody _sleep_," Will decided seriously, and crossed his arms across his chest while raising his eyebrows at me again, his trademark You-Better-Listen-To-Me-Mister/Miss pose.

I took a breath. "I'm-"

"If you tell me you're fine one more time I will actually pressure point you and drag you home myself," Will threatened.

I sighed loudly. "Fine. I'm going home, then." I rolled my eyes and walked past him. He followed, arms still crossed, and I knew he didn't believe me.

When we got to the door he told me, "If I see you again in this hospital in any amount of time less than twelve hours I will actually bring you to my house and keep you there until I see that you're better enough to go back to work. Got it?"

I nodded, again rolling my eyes.

Will smiled warmly. "Thank you. Go sleep now. Please."

AS I STARTED driving the exhaustion and pain started setting in. My forehead, leg, and chest were killing me, and I could barely keep my eyes open. I also felt cold, and my body did not want to sleep in its own bed. I knew what it _did_ want, though.

I drove to my girlfriend's house and fell asleep the moment I laid down on her couch.

SO MUCH FOR sleep- I woke up shivering from a nightmare about an hour and a half after I'd fallen asleep.

"Jaeson? Is that you?" asked Rishley. I thought I had heard someone climbing down the stairs.

I groaned as she flipped the light switch on. "Yeah, it's me," I murmured.

"Oh, Jaeson, you look exhausted," she said caringly, kneeling down to gently touch my cheek. "What are you doing here? And up so late? And you're hurt!"

I propped myself up on my elbow, but stared at the floor. "I know, I know. I didn't want to be alone in my big empty house so I came here," I said quietly. I looked up at her and whispered, "You don't mind if I sleep here on the couch, do you?"

"I do, actually. Come sleep upstairs in an actual bed with me, will you?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in hopeful question at me.

"I'm fine down here," I murmured, looking at the floor again. I didn't want her to be troubled by me or be tired because of me.

She picked up my head in her hands and told me, "You're always fine. Now get upstairs." With that she took my hand and pretty much dragged me up the steps.

"Really," I mumbled as she dragged me, "I have nightmares. I toss and turn like all hell is breaking loose."

"I don't care," Rishley insisted.

"I do if you don't get any sleep," I told her.

She glanced back at me, rolling her eyes, and said, "Honey. Nice try."

"I mean it," I said at the entrance to her door.

Just then she whipped around and I knocked into her, but she took hold of and embraced me. "I know you do. Now let's go to bed, shall we?"

I laid my head on her shoulder and took a deep breath, giving up. "Okay."

We walked to the bed and she pulled the blankets back and tucked herself in, then watched me do the same. As I slowly climbed into her warm bed and sank into the softness of the sheets and the knowledge of her beside me, I happily realized my sleep could only get better from there.

ANOTHER HOUR LATER I woke up and sprung into a sitting position, my hand on my heart and its beating too fast in my ears. I breathed in and out, in and out.

Rishley sat up as well and leaned against me tiredly, putting her hand onto my heart. I felt my shoulders tense in response- this was the closest I'd been to her, or anyone, in that case, in a long, long time. Since Mary, the woman I'd loved since my first life thousands of years and hundreds of reincarnations ago. "Hey, you okay?" she murmured into my neck. "I can feel your heart going crazy fast."

I swallowed and breathed deeply a couple more times before answering, relaxing a little as my heart calmed. "I'm fine."

"You're always fine," she murmured groggily. "But are you okay?"

I sighed. "I'm fine. Really."

"I know you're fine. Are you _okay_?" Rishley said a bit more meaningfully. She turned to look up at me and I realized I had put a hand over hers on my heart.

I studied her face and her aura. She really did care, but I already knew that. I could feel it. I told her the truth: "I don't know."

"What happened, honey?" she wondered quietly.

I looked away from her and whispered, "Nightmare. That's all."

When I looked back at her she stared hard into my face, concern and worry in her eyes. "What about?"

I flinched at the memory of it. "I can barely think about it. It's too much to talk about it now."

"Okay," she said quietly, then took my head in her hands and whispered, "I'm here for you, all right? It isn't my job: it's my life choice."

Her life choice? Did she mean she had chosen to spend her life taking c- with me? That meant a lot to me, I had to say. Almost as much as when she first told me she loved me. But she didn't need to take care of me- I'd done it on my own for almost all of my memories, and I could keep doing it. But I didn't say that. "I know" was all I did say. "Thank you."

"Okay," she whispered again, and laid back down. I laid down next to her and was surprised to feel her slide closer to me. I felt my nerves ride up as I made a daring move: I put my arms around her. I didn't know why, but I was surprised to feel her relax and then quickly fall asleep, obviously happy in my arms. I pressed my forehead against hers and was a bit shocked to find how relaxed I was with her so close. I fell asleep myself just moments after.

THE NEXT MORNING I spent in bed. For the first time in a long time, I slept until about noon, and when I did wake up Rishley was there with an ibuprofen and lunch. We ate together in her bed and just stayed there, together. All the many pains, aches, and worries (of Will and his heart, of Race, who I knew would be fine, of everything) floated away, and not into my dreams.


	5. People and Places p1

CHAPTER FIVE

LUCIFER

I LOVED ALL of school except gym. Gym sucked, to put it flatly. I was easily the fastest and strongest, but sports were just... stupid. I hated them. I tried, yeah, but not really. Really I hung out with my friend Samantha. I liked her. She was my very best friend and had been the one to show me how to operate in the different high school situations; we were in most of the same classes together, which was pretty awesome.

Though one day gym sucked worse than normal.

The girls and guys were in different classes for swimming, so I was stuck with all the athletic jock guys and Samantha had to tough it out with all the annoying popular girls. (We were in the worst gym class ever. _Ever._)

It was going fine at first. Boring, definitely, but fine. Not dangerous. I decided I liked to swim (yay) but was still bored. Then it happened.

It started with me being dizzy. Like, I-had-to-get-out-of-the-pool-or-I-would-crash dizzy. So I stumbled out of the pool and sat down, clutching at my head.

The gym teacher strutted over and demanded of me, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm... I'm really dizzy" was all I could muster out of my spinning system.

"Dizzy? Get the hell back in the pool!" he yelled, his face reddening to the very flattering shade of a tomato. "You wimp!"

I stood up slowly, but when I took a step I missed the edge and plummeted into the pool; as I fell I threw my hands down and just barely stopped my head from hitting the ground. Pain from the shock rocked my body, and a moan escaped with all the air from my body. The world started spinning faster, and I couldn't move. I watched the water above me- it was so pretty. So blue, calm, happy. Undisturbed.

I frowned as the surface shattered and another kid jumped in, swimming towards me with a worried expression on my face and the red-and-white swim shorts of a lifeguard. He grabbed my underarms and swam up, then shoved me onto the deck.

"Breathe!" he gasped, and pressed down on the chest with the force of the big, muscular guy he was.

This, of course, struck life into me and suddenly my body realized that it was oxygen deprived and started coughing and choking on the air racing in and out of my system.

"Can I go to the nurse?" I choked out after a moment, looking at my teacher. He had been standing there, red as a tomato, the entire time.

"No! I can tell you did that on purpose!" the teacher screamed at me. "Now, get back into the pool!"

I stared at him, disbelieving. I tried to get up but found I couldn't, my world spinning too fast. I simply collapsed back onto the ground, dazed. The lifeguard came over (even though my teacher was yelling for him to go back to his post), and I felt him take my pulse on my neck.

"His heart is slowing down," he whispered, his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

My heart was slowing down. "Like cardiac arrest?" I whispered, remembering something about Will's disease.

The lifeguard nodded. "It will be. We need to call 9-1-1. Now."

"No," I gasped. "Call the PIPA medical base and Samantha. Trust me. Please."

"But-" my teacher began.

"Just do it!" the lifeguard demanded, and ran towards the phone. "What's PIPA's number? And somebody get the girl he's talking about!"

Quite a few minutes must have passed because I was suddenly in an ambulance with Will to my right, charging an AED, and Samantha and Lightning to my left.

"I was right," Will whispered gravely to Lightning. "Ashley IS the third case. And Lucifer is the second. He, unfortunately, is also the prove that the condition's genetic." A single tear slipped down his cheek as he whispered almost inaudibly (and obviously not meant for anyone's ears) and sarcastically, "Congratulations on helping science by pretty much being killed."

I screamed as I was shocked, then, thankfully, I fainted.

WILL

I sighed as I explained to Jaeson, Lightning, and Blueaura that Lucifer (who was dead asleep) had my heart condition, my cardiac arrest. That it meant it was definitely genetic.

Jaeson took up the responsibility of calling the school and telling them what happened and that Lucifer now officially had a heart condition.

Meanwhile, I did Ashley's labs (someone had gotten her blood) and went back into her room. Two hours had passed, but Kate and Ashley's mother were both still there, playing some card game.

"Hello," I greeted, a bit sadly, as I entered again, slowly closing the door behind me.

"What took you so long? And why is she still asleep?" Ashley's mother demanded, immediately tensing up and dropping the cards all over the floor.

I sighed and walked over, swooping down to help her pick them all up. "With this kind of cardiac arrest, it's normal that she'll sleep for at least eleven hours. The condition tires the body out a lot," I explained. After we had picked all the cards up and I had stood back up, I cleared my throat. "I apologize for taking so long. I just confirmed that there are three documented cases of what Ashley and I have."

"You have this condition?" the mother asked, paling a tad bit. She was back in her chair, but her spine was rigid still. Meanwhile, Kate looked on with sad eyes.

I nodded. "Yes. And it's confirmed by the karyotype that your daughter has it as well. I'm..." I looked away for an instant, the clutch of sorrow at my heart momentarily overwhelming. She was another soul doomed to living near a hospital forever. "I'm so sorry."

"Is... is this a death sentence for her? Is she going to die?" Kate asked, biting her lip and beginning to tear up.

I shook my head and gave a tiny, bittersweet smile. "Miss, my first cardiac arrest was when I was seven years old. I'm nineteen now and am perfectly healthy besides the attacks. We may not now know how to cure it all in all and only have vague ideas as to why it occurs, but we know how to take her out of the arrests when they happen."

"This'll happen again?" Ashely's mom demanded, also beginning to tear up. "For certain?"

I nodded, biting my lip. "Unfortunately, yes."

"How many cardiac arrests have you been in?" Kate asked. Her voice was only a sliver of sound.

"A lot," I said, shrugging. "Though I'm not sure if it will be the same for her. How many she'll have, I mean." I glanced away again, not wanting to meet the poor mother's eyes.

"Okay," she whispered, accepting this with a nod. I turned back, and she met my gaze, her eyes worried. "So what happens now?"

"Now we wait until she wakes up. I'll run a few tests to make sure it isn't caused by anything in addition and then we'll release her," I explained simply. I noticed how tired my voice was then; I hoped they did not.

Kate as well as Ashley's mother frowned. "Just like that?" Kate demanded. "What else can you do for her? Is that really it?"

I shook my head sadly and stared at the ground. "I'm afraid so. If we knew more... then, well, we could do more, but we don't know anything else." I looked up at her at that moment, and I let her see my sadness. "I'm so sorry about this."

Seeing my sorrow, she nodded. "It's none of your fault. You saved her life, you know. And the fact that we know why this happened _is_ a fact, isn't it?"

I smiled sadly. "I guess so."

Suddenly Ashley's mother looked at me, fear in her eyes. "What if it happens again and she's asleep?"

I said reassuringly, "It's never happened to me in my sleep, Ma'am. But..." I rolled my shoulders, a tad bit uncomfortable under her intensely fearful gaze. "I will keep a special eye on her for you."

She smiled, though it had a tint of sadness to it. "Thank you, Doctor Riverside."

I nodded. It was all I could do.

I WOKE UP around two that fateful morning, the sky still a deep black with tiny pinpricks of starlight gleaming dimly through. I was in my office chair with Ashley's barely finished labs on my desk. I drew a tired hand through my messy hair and wondered if she'd be waking up any time soon. It'd been twelve hours, after all. More than enough.

The nurses knew me by now; this late at night I was either on call and had been sleeping in the on-call room or had fallen asleep at my desk. They smiled at me as I walked past. One, Naeila, stopped me and ask what had happened this time.

I smiled sadly, tiredly. "There's a girl, eighteen tomorrow, or well, today." I glanced down at the papers in my hands. "She's got my condition. These papers confirm it."

Naeila frowned, sorrow in her expression. "That's... I'm sorry, Will."

I shrugged. "There's not much I can do. I'm off to check on her now."

"Okay. Go home and sleep afterwards, all right? Remember that you're going to lecture at that college in two days. You'll need that sleep," Naeila reminded me.

"Huh! I forgot about that. Thanks, Naeila," I smiled at her, and then walked on towards Ashley's room.

She wasn't awake when I got there, so I dragged in a chair from the next room and sat down, planning to wait a few moments just in case.

"HELLO? DOCTOR RIVERSIDE?"

I blinked open my eyes and glanced at the clock on the wall opposite me. It read four in the morning.

"Doctor Riverside?"

I turned to Ashley, who looked small and helpless and frightened against the white hospital bed and walls. "Hi. Sorry, I guess I fell asleep."

She smiled a little. "How long have you been here?"

I glanced at the clock again. "I came around two but fell asleep about ten minutes after I'd gotten here, to be honest. I was doing your labs in my office before, but I fell asleep there as well."

"You must be tired," she gathered.

I shrugged. "I am a bit."

"Do you do this a lot?" she wondered.

"Do what?" I wondered, frowning and mashing my eyebrows together.

She grinned. "Fall asleep in your patients' rooms."

I blushed. "Oh, no. Sorry, I know it's unprofessional, I should-"

"It lets me know you care," Ashley interrupted, her grin turned to a simple smile. "You're obviously exhausted, but you've stayed here all night to make sure I was all right."

I blushed again and nodded. "I should still probably sleep at home."

"Have you tried the on-call room?" she asked.

I blinked up at her. "Most patients don't know that exists."

She beamed a little. "It's kinda funny. I have one more final, the one next week, to take and then I'll be an intern. Here, actually."

I smiled, too. "Patient today, doctor tomorrow. You'll be only eighteen tomorrow?"

She glanced at the clock. "Today, actually. And yeah, I kinda skipped a couple of grades." She beamed again.

"Good for you! That's wonderful!" I told her happily. I softened my gaze as I said softly, "Happy birthday. Though spending it here probably isn't the most fun."

"No, well," she said, shrugging. A sly smile crawled across her face and she told me, "But you know what would be fun?"

I really hoped she wasn't thinking what I thought she was thinking. "What?" I asked, a little frightened.

"If you could show me all the secret passageways and dungeons hidden in this maze of a hospital," she said hopefully, her eyes bright.

"A tour?"

"Please?"

I smiled broadly, relieved. "I'd be happy to. When?"

She stood up, excitement making her features brighten and broaden even more. "Now?"

"Okay! I have to get you in a wheelchair, though," I told her, smiling. "You're not an intern yet."

"Right," she agreed, still grinning.

A few minutes later, I was walking her through the whole hospital and letting her meet some of the nurses and a few doctors. I showed her where the CAT scans and the MRI's were, where the actual on-call room was, where the hospital morphed into the PIPA center, and finally where my office was.

There we took a break. Or, I did, at least. I sat down in my desk chair and she got up and walked over to the window. It was raining again, and you could hear the small pitter-patter of the rain and the muffled, far-off roll of thunder.

"I didn't know it was raining," she whispered, staring out. Ashley looked enchanted.

"Yeah," I agreed quietly. "This window feels like the only actual window in the whole hospital."

"What do you mean?" she wondered, turning to look back at me for a moment.

"Windows are supposed to give you a glance outside, right?" She nodded. "Well, I feel like all the other windows only let light in, and that this is the only window that lets you see the outside world, like it's supposed to." I silently stood up and walked up to stand beside her so I could point things out. "There is Flower Street. There's a woman and her husband who walk out there around eight every Monday morning, and sometimes a little girl bikes past to school during the week, and then at night there's a man who has to walk his poor houndour at like eleven at night. I don't know what happens during the day; I'm only really in my office here really late at night or really early in the morning. But when I am here I like to look at all the people who pass, because sometimes there's different people, and I wonder where they're going and where they came from and who they are."

"Wow," Ashley whispered, her intense gaze rooted even further past the glass window. "I think I get what you mean now. The window that's in my room is so high up I can't see out of it, could never notice all those wonderful, beautiful things you do, but I can see the light that shines through sometimes."

"Yeah. If I built this hospital I would have lowered all the windows."

"Me, too. I like light but I also like people."

"Same here."

For a while we stayed there and just watched the rain. We listened to it, too, because taking in both of them made for a calming effect. I noticed the rain gently landing on the window and snaking down in tiny rivulets; I watched as the smaller ones collided with other ones and grew. After a while of this, she peeled herself from the window and sat back down in her wheelchair. "I'm tired."

I snorted. "I figured you might be. I'll take you back to your room, okay?"

She nodded and yawned.

Ashley was already asleep by the time we were back in her room.

I WOKE UP face-down on my desk a few hours later, light spilling into my room. According to my clock, it was eleven the next morning.

I sighed, wondering why no one had woken me.

Getting up from my desk and combing my messy hair with my fingers, I started looking around my office, trying to remember what I had been doing. It appeared I'd just fallen asleep, and eventually I remembered that I'd been up quite late, which explained it all.

"Will, you're up," Jaeson called from the doorway. He was leaning on the left part of it.

"Why did no one wake me?" I asked sleepily, struggling to turn my head to face him.

"The nurses saw you running around at four in the morning," Jaeson reported, snorting and crossing his arms. "No one's going to wake you if you're up that late attending to patients. Or, _a_ patient, I should say." Jaeson stood up straight to move his hands to his hips. "What's with her? You didn't visit with Lucifer this much."

I shrugged. "It was her birthday. She's going to be an intern here and she wanted me to show her around."

Jaeson smiled softly. "It's still her birthday, you know. And she just woke up."

I smiled back. He knew how I felt about her. I thanked him and went to the gift shop.

_**Sorry for the delay, all! NaNoWriMo and stuff. I was also in Washington DC for a while with no internet, so therefore no posting abilities. Sorry! Here is half of this chapter, since the total one was about fifteen pages and 3500 words. Too many to edit at nine thirty at night xD Hope you enjoyed!**_


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